Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Coxhoe
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; damage only starts once your pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Coxhoe, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Coxhoe: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Take the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which fluid, and about how much amount? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and we can know.
- Tell us a postcode starting DH6 4, or whatever street lies closest, and our van finds you directly — so call from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the vehicle: the engine stays off.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way up Cornforth Lane.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
On a forecourt in Coxhoe, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. No part inside a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and none of that was intended to travel through one.
It does not blend. Once it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A car filled on a driveway in Cornforth yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when the motor runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
After it is drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. What is left once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting till morning around Coxhoe makes it worse. Inside that tank alone, time does nothing. Then there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on JET's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the main issue. No harm comes while it stays unused, mixed into the diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in West Cornforth or the middle of Coxhoe.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Durham your car has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
Coxhoe: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Usually it's not the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Coxhoe Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off B6291. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The Village Tavern.
It happens most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Coxhoe or the rest of Durham, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Coxhoe?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. The filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Maybe coming back from Coxhoe Park, or midway across Coxhoe, the engine might go rough, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or cut out. Stop when safe. Turn off. Leave the car off instead of restarting it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Coxhoe sits under a mile from the A1(M); if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop safely rather than driving on.
Hopping across Coxhoe to the car park by St Andrew's Methodist Church is one thing; driving towards Durham, under 10 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Lasting damage is very rare when it's spotted quickly.
Coxhoe: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that is a street beside Coxhoe War Memorial, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in Coxhoe, and the van comes to it. The work depends on three replies, and we get before all else — which fluid got in, the amount, and whether the engine has run.
Next, emptying that tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing your car follows at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and your filter gets flushed or, where necessary, replaced. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when your motor has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Lastly, the fuel system is bled with new diesel. At that point we fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay by Durham or a drive in Coxhoe. It's tested on new diesel to confirm it runs properly before we go. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Coxhoe
Coxhoe is a village situated on the banks of a river in County Durham, with an elevation of around 111 metres. Coxhoe lies approximately 5 miles from the city of Durham and is surrounded by nearby villages such as Garmondsway and Kelloe. Coxhoe has a population of around 2205 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Coxhoe is located in the North East region of England, about 228 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Coxhoe and Durham
AdBlue call-outs in Coxhoe are passed to vans that cover the towns around it — Garmondsway, Kelloe as well as Tursdale — and much of Durham further out, throughout DH postcodes. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
No towing is needed. In Coxhoe, a village, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is emptied where it stands, be it in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Coxhoe
Not one flat price could be fair, because every job differs. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Coxhoe Village Hall.
Before a figure, not after, every call from Coxhoe opens with three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. Once they are known, a range becomes one firm number.
Before anyone sets off, you hear our price by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Next to your car in Coxhoe, right now?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Coxhoe or anywhere across Durham.